EL PASO COUNTY — Democrat Marsha Unruh has two "No Soliciting" signs on her front door, but that hasn't stopped folks opposing and supporting the recall of Senate President John Morse from coming by her Colorado Springs home.

"We have been overwhelmed by both sides," she said Thursday, as she waited to vote in Colorado's first-ever recall election of a state lawmaker.

"And the phone calls have been insane. It's been incessant," said Unruh, who supports Morse because of his work for the disabled community.

Long lines and what elections officials called "surprisingly high turnouts" marked the first day of voting in the recall election of Morse as more than 3,500 voters from his El Paso County Senate district headed to the polls to cast ballots.

Democratic state Sen. John Morse visits with a resident of Colorado Springs on Thursday. Morse is being targeted for recall for his support of gun-control bills. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

Morse, a Colorado Springs Democrat, and Sen. Angela Giron, a Pueblo Democrat, learn Tuesday whether attempts to recall them over their support for stricter gun laws were successful.

Polls in Giron's recall opened last week.

Funded in part by the National Rifle Association and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose group Mayors Against Illegal Guns played a pivotal role in the gun legislation that passed in the past session, both sides of the recalls have been furiously working these final days to get supporters to the polls.

If Morse and Giron are recalled, two Republican candidates, Bernie Herpin of El Paso County and George Rivera of Pueblo, will take their place in the state Senate.

In southeastern Colorado Springs on Thursday, more than 50 volunteers with A Whole Lot of People for John Morse grabbed clipboards and handfuls of chips and bottles of water as they rushed out to canvass neighborhoods for the lawmaker.

Morse, dressed in a navy-blue No. 18 Peyton Manning jersey, was among them.

"It's go time. We're in the final stretch, and we're going to get this done," said Morse, who estimated that each day this week he has knocked on about 50 doors of voters either undecided or who have yet to cast ballots but are inclined to vote for him. "We've been meeting with people for months getting my message out to them."

As Morse — accompanied by a media person from the Democratic National Committee — canvassed a neighborhood in his Senate District 11, many Democrats he visited expressed their support for him. But some noted reservations about a gun law backed by Morse that limits ammunition magazines to 15 rounds.

"I disagree with you on it," union electrician Gary Johnson told Morse as the two chatted outside Johnson's single-car garage.

Johnson also expressed concerns about state Democrats' passing a law that allows in-state tuition for those in the country illegally.

But he said he'll vote against the recall because he's "going to stick with the party."

Only those who live in Senate District 11, which spans from Manitou Springs through downtown Colorado Springs and into the southeastern part of the city, are eligible to vote in Morse's recall, but nonresidents showed up Thursday. Some lived just blocks outside his district, others miles away.

"I thought if you live in the county, you're able to vote," said a man exiting a polling location at Garden of the Gods Road.

Volunteers at the El Paso County Republican headquarters made almost 5,000 calls in two days, said Rob O'Regan, Herpin's grassroots coordinator. Among the volunteers: Davis Tutt, 20, president of the Colorado College Young Republicans, who said his group is fighting a "very liberal, anti-recall atmosphere" on campus.

At a downtown Colorado Springs office pushing for Morse's recall and shared by several conservative groups, orange bags containing the NRA logo were filled with campaign literature.

Republican Debbie Edwards of Calhan spent the morning calling voters in Morse's district, reminding them of the election and where to find polling places.

It was the first time Edwards has volunteered for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group upset with Morse for his support for tax increases and a renewable-energy bill that much of rural Colorado opposed.

Asked about the response she was getting, Edwards sounded surprised at the split among voters.

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